Unmanned Systems Technology 028 | ecoSUB Robotics AUVs I ECUs focus I Space vehicles insight I AMZ Driverless gotthard I InterDrone 2019 report I ATI WAM 167-BB I Video systems focus I Aerdron HL4 Herculift

HALT, it puts the ECUs through several years’ worth of stress and unearths any weak spots that would otherwise not appear until thousands of running hours had been accumulated. The availability of altitude engine testing facilities can be key, as this would help with regular and highly accelerated testing by accurately simulating environmental conditions at flight altitudes up to 20,000 ft (6 km), ensuring the ECU operates correctly across every part of its expected flight envelope. By adopting automated testing equipment, data from tests and screenings can be more seamlessly recorded, and in huge quantities. In addition to providing more material for analysing and correcting problems found during testing, mapping data for different performance outputs can be amassed from testing engines and ECUs on dynamometers. That means ECUs can be recalibrated more quickly when an end-user wants to run their engine in an unusual way, such as with a different richness or leanness of fuel, and at a certain altitude or speed. Regardless of data recording, using testing machines such as dynos or environmental chambers, as well as the ECUs and their load simulators, can be labour-intensive. Without automated equipment, dyno speeds and cooling fans must be manually operated, and environmental and load variations Highly accelerated lifetime testing can unearth mechanical weaknesses or software errors in ECUs that might otherwise not appear until late into the unit’s lifetime (Courtesy of UAV Factory)